About Blessed Yoga

Embrace the light and allow the prana to guide you.

Blessed: "worthy of adoration, reverence, or worship"

Yoga: "union of the self with the Supreme Being or ultimate principle"

Blessed Yoga is an energetic, creative, full-spectrum approach to embodying the flow of yoga cultivated by Ashley Cruz and her many teachers. Students of all levels are empowered to experience self-evolution and self-awareness through the cultivation of prana - the universal source of breath, life-energy and conscious intelligence - as the navigating source of yoga practice and vital living. Practitioners learn classical and innovative approaches to Vinyasa Yoga and the state of flow drawn from Swami Satyananda Saraswati's teachings and the Bihar School of Yoga, Tantra, Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy, Bhakti, Hatha, Integral, Kundalini, as well as Ashtanga drawn from her training at the Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Institute in Mysore and Ashley's all-embracing immersion into her own practice and yoga studies since 2005.

Intention

Our intentions make yoga more than just physical exercise. We practice yoga to remember, reveal, and delight in the divine oneness that is the source and substance of our embodied experience. Yoga continually deepens our understanding of our truest nature, leading us to the source of divine longing in our hearts and unleashing it as creative self-expression. We embrace all that is life-affirming, and celebrate the gift of this life by living it with passion, clarity and joy.

Alignment

When we practice with awareness and refinement, our poses become a powerful technology for healing and transformation. We gain a greater sense of vitality and, personal efficacy, and we cultivate more freedom in the body, expansion of the heart, and clarity of mind. We use intelligent alignment to increase our physical and spiritual potential in each pose. When our bodies are optimally aligned, the action is strong and balanced, and the attitude is pure and powerful, then our transformation is swift and potent.

Heart

Powerful yoga is practiced from inside out. It is a heart-filled expression that is as much personal as it is shared. As we uplift ourselves through this practice, our vitality, beauty, and radiance uplifts others around us. This expansion of our heart pulses through the interwoven fabric of our community, and we begin to create the world we wish to live in. We celebrate and encourage the greatness of everyone we practice with and cultivate an inclusive and accepting community of the heart.

Blessed Yoga is also:

An evolutionary method of embodied transformation and radiant health. A catalyst for transforming old patterns and paradigms of the body, self, and the world to discover the potency and creativity within. A way of liberating the natural flow of the spontaneous intelligence. A way to ride the waves of breath, change, and life rhythms while living, loving, and serving life in all form.

"Your practice is your way to reconnect directly with the intimacy that is life. It is a whole body prayer, a celebration of that which beats the heart and moves the breath. My dynamic and inspiring teachers have taught me to live with compassion for my students and to have a sincere regard for their healing. As a catalyst for transformation they have encouraged my own self–empowerment and self–awareness, helping me to love and thrive through life’s many challenges. As a result my attention is focused on interweaving prana with physical alignment, mental wellness and an energetic flow to support a full and complete living sadhana, spiritual practice; within myself and within my students, on and off the mat. I teach and learn based on intelligent intuitive sequencing and applied spiritual wisdom.

My intention in teaching is to hold space for others’ awakening and healing. On a path lit by mentors in sacred wisdom traditions and a community of radically awakening spirit, I bow to my teachers in all forms." ~ Ashley

Blessed Yoga is Social!

What Students of Blessed Yoga Have to Say:

﻿﻿❤ ~ Ana Valinho, Student in Cusco, Peru 2015

"From Aldea Yanapay (great school of love to children), to the incredible homely hostel la boheme, to the food at mercado san blas and at greenpoint... My 6 weeks in Cusco/Qosqo/centre/gravitational centre were all truly well balanced out by Ashley ● I have been doing yoga for five years in London, Lisbon and NYC and I was wonderfully surprised by the teacher Ashley at the Yoga Room in Cusco, Peru. From her words, to the sense of opportunity, helping, the pace, the getting everyone's names and brief "why am I here", taste for music and simply those oils... vinyasa gained a new look for me. ● You made me feel so balanced out, just when I needed that push. May your excellent work continue and your knowledge be taken further."​~ Yours, ana maria (portugal) ~ Ana Valinho, Student in Cusco, Peru 2015